Hearing aids for enhancing the ability of the hearing impaired to hear are well known. Hearing aids have a microphone, an amplifier, a battery, and speaker. The microphone picks up ambient sound, such as voices. The amplifier increases the intensity of at least selected portions of the sound so that it can more easily be heard. The battery provides power to the amplifier. The speaker converts an electronic signal from the amplifier into sound at the user's ear.
Some hearing aids include a filter that tends to reject non-voice sounds. The use of a filter helps make voice more intelligible by at least partially eliminating sound that can interfere with voice. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, some sounds can interfere with voidce in a manner that makes voice more difficult to hear and understand.
Some hearing aids are analog devices and some hearing aids are digital devices. Analog hearing aids use analog electronic circuitry to amplify and/or filter sound. Digital hearing aids use digital circuitry to amplify and/or filter sound. The use of digital circuitry can provide enhanced control over the hearing aid's ability to reject unwanted sounds.
Some hearing aids have the microphone, amplifier, battery, and filter located behind the ear and are therefore referred to as behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids. Such hearing aids also have a portion that is in the ear. The portion in the ear contains the speaker. The speaker can be located in the conchae or the ear canal.
Some hearing aids are disposed entirely within the ear and are known as in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aids. A portion of the hearing aid can be located within the conchae and another portion of the hearing aid can be located within the ear canal. Typically, the microphone, amplifier, battery, and filter of ITE hearing aids are located in the conchae and the speaker is located within the ear canal.
Some hearing aids are disposed entirely within the ear canal and are known as completely-in-the-canal (CIC) hearing aids. The microphone, amplifier, battery, speaker, and filter are all disposed in the ear canal of the user.
Generally, at least a portion of the speaker is disposed in the ear canal regardless of the type of hearing aid. The entire speaker and other components of the hearing aid can be disposed either completely or partially in the ear canal.
Although such contemporary hearing aids have proven generally suitable for their intended purposes, they possess inherent deficiencies which detract from their overall desirability and effectiveness. For example, the speaker and any other components of a contemporary hearing aid that are to be disposed in the ear canal are commonly contained within a rigid plastic housing. The rigid plastic housing can press upon and/or abrade sensitive tissues of the ear canal. This can result in irritation and/or damage to these tissues. Further, contemporary hearing aids do not deliver sound sufficiently close to the eardrum so as to be as effective as desired. Further, contemporary hearing aids are undesirably subject to loosening and even falling out of the ear.
Further, the rigid plastic housing does not typically seal well against the ear canal, thus allowing unfiltered ambient sound to reach the eardrum. The unfiltered ambient sound includes noise that would otherwise have been mitigated by the hearing aid's filter. This noise makes voice less intelligible and thereby adversely affects the effectiveness of the hearing aid.
Improper sealing of the hearing aid with respect to the ear canal can also allow amplified sound to escape from the ear canal and be picked up with the hearing aid's microphone. This can result in positive feedback that causes a squeal. The squeal can be very loud to the hearing aid wearer and is extremely annoying.
As such, although the prior art has recognized, to a limited extent, problems associated with the use of hearing aids, the proposed solutions have, to date, been ineffective in providing a satisfactory remedy. Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improvement to hearing aids and the like that enhances the comfort and effectiveness thereof.